"Just Kill Me Know" (the book)

I have been so bad at this. And I’m not going to say at this time that I will get better. Life is busy though I suspect in my own life it a lot of needless busy. I have not been very good about writing over all. I have been thinking about writing this post for several months.

I wanted to talk about a book I read, “Just Stab Me Now” by Jill Bearup. I will keep this spoiler-free. To start I will explain how I even found out about this book.

Several years back I found Jill Bearup’s content on YouTube. One of her titles is actor combated. Which all in all, she is someone who is trained in how to fight on stage (and make it look good). With this knowledge, she would analyze fight scenes in movies and TV shows. One of the things she does in her analysis (which I greatly appreciate) is that she does not look at solely if the fight is historically accurate but what the fight tells you about the characters. See her fight analysis on the mask of Zorro.

She also does armor tear list. She will look at armor from movies, TV shows, video games, etc., and put it on a list. The top tear is “I’d wear it.” Second, “Could be better.” Third “Eh,” or “Not actually armor.” Four, “Could be better.” And lastly, everyone’s favorite, “Just stab me now!” As you might imagine, a lot of so-called women’s armor ends up there. You know, when you put a little plate mall on basically a bikini and try to call it armor. Or a thigh-high slit or just not covering the upper leg. There is a major artery there. And ladies fighting in high heels, she Hates that! But overall it's all good fun. (She has some other content too, but it generally has to do with fighting somehow.) She is fun and clean and I have genuinely enjoyed her videos.

Around two years ago or so, she started putting out some short clips. I think the tick-tock style video was getting popular, and I think she might just have been trying it out. The videos followed a “fantasy heroin” and her author. The two meet and talk and the heroin refuses to act in the way the author wishes. It makes fun of a lot of clichés while holding on to others. The very first video pocks fun at the fact that few fantasy heroines are mature older women. And our mature older women refuses to act like a floozy, barely of-age girl but rather behaves as any rational adult would, much to the chagrin of the author, who can force some tropes of the heroines who just wants to protect her family. The story rolls along nicely with things never going quite the way the author or heroine want. I think I’ve heard that often Jill felt like she was pulled along by the characters herself and the story ebbed and flowed in ways she did not plan. Many authors can relate to this. The characters, if acting true to their character and personally traits, don’t always follow the original plan of the author. I have never had too much trouble with this, but my outlines are usually pretty vague and if I’m being brutally honest, probably because my characters don’t have enough character.

Anyway, the series was a joy to watch and I, like many, excitedly waited for each new video to drop and was sad to see it end. I’m not sure when it started but soon she had people wanting her to make the story into a book. At first, Jill was fully in the “NO” camp. She said she was not a writer. She could write short bits but anything long was out of the question. I’m not sure what changed her mind but she was eventually talked (or persuaded) into writing it all up in book form. To this day I think she will tell you she hated writing it. She went the self-publishing rough and hired people to help edit and design and so on and so forth.

In February of this year, the paperback was released and yours truly bought a copy. It’s a fun read and one I can recommend. I think I enjoyed the videos a bit more, though the book is more flushed out. It might be because I could see and hear the author and just what she meant/wanted. Which means I should try to get the auto book because Jill was going to do the full recording of it herself I believe.

The book does give more from the male leads perspective which was both enjoyable and helpful. She has the author write something at her place of work which made me go, “Oh, I’m not the only one?!” (Though I have not done so much anymore.) The book is not Christian but it’s not anti-Christian either. The religion practiced in the story even felt like had some themes taken from Christianity. The story is clean and safe and I would think young readers could read it safely.

I think you can still find the clips on youtube, “Just Stab Me Now,” series or possibly the "Fantasy Heroine" series, both by Jill Bearup. Check out the videos and or the book. I recommend both.

Until next time,

God Bless